Melting ceramic frit in a continuous process is done in conventional facilities having reservoir or bath furnaces built with a refractory chamber and heated by one or several air-gas combustion burners, oxygen-gas combustion burners or a combination for different fuels, which allow reaching temperatures between 1000-1600° C. inside the furnace.
During ceramic frit production, it is important to establish and control optimal operating conditions of said production through a series of parameters, which are hard to stabilize in continuous processes. Furthermore, in the case of frits, it is common to change the composition of the raw material forming the batch of frit to be produced, i.e., the molten product, so said operating production conditions change and must be adjusted in each case.
These changes in production conditions according to the different products to be obtained represent a problem for conventional furnaces.
On the other hand, submerged combustion furnaces are used in molten glass production, where combustion is characterized in that the flame of the burners is completely covered by the molten material bath.
Patent document US 2011/0236846A1 describes a submerged melter with submerged burners contained inside the chamber, in addition to a raw material inlet, a molten material outlet and a gas outlet. This system involves an alternative technology for conventional refractory furnaces, although it does not provide solutions for being applied to the field of ceramic frit.
Patent document U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,034A describes a submerged combustion process applied to the field of glass production, which prevents foaming or bubbling in this process by means of a series of stages in said process. It does not solve other problems existing in ceramic frit production, such as the need for a rapid and effective change in production conditions for obtaining different product batches.
Patent document US 2013/0283861 describes a submerged combustion system for glass, controlled from different parameters relating both to the flame and to the temperature of the chamber. However, it does not solve the drawbacks derived from the production change required by ceramic frit production.
It would therefore be desirable to find a solution for a ceramic frit melting system that simplifies the features of furnaces existing up until now, aiding in the installation startup of the furnace such that it allows a rapid and effective change in frit production composition in different batches, with more versatile and energy efficient furnaces.